When we heard about Guy Rhodes, we knew we’d found our winner. Not only is he an insanely talented lighting designer, he’s also a professional photographer and videographer. (Guess who shot the amazing photos of his work that appear on this website?) Guy earned his BA in Theater/Lighting Design from Columbia College in Chicago in 2005, and he’s been lighting up the concert and theatrical stage ever since. Currently, he’s the house LD at Gary, Indiana’s West Side Theatre Guild, a 2,000-seat venue that doubles as an indoor fly space for Guy’s radio-controlled helicopters during programming breaks. Definitely watch out for this guy!

WHY GUY: You mean, aside from his wicked eye for lighting and color? Well, we like the fact that he’s a triple threat – lighting designer, photographer and videographer. All those extra disciplines just give him a better POV. Plus, he won the Northwest Indiana Excellence in Theatre Foundation award for Best Lighting Design in 2001. Oh, and he has remarkably fine taste in gel products.

HIS PLAYGROUND: The concert stage. The theater. Video shoots. Anywhere there’s a great photo waiting to be taken. (He recently shot the women’s moguls finals on Vancouver’s Cypress Mountain during the 2010 Winter Olympics. How cool is that? Well, apparently not cool enough – it rained buckets on the event.)

RECENT SHOWS/Lighting Designer:

Check it out. All the photos you see below were shot by Guy.

West Side Theatre Guild – Gary, Indiana

• Lyrics: Michael Jackson – Yesterday, Today, and Forever
  
  
• An Evening with Boyz II Men featuring The Alan Project
  
• Dreamgirls
  
  
• Steel Waters: The Musical
• An Evening with Shirley Caesar
• A Raisin in the Sun
  
  
• An Evening with Coretta Scott King

The Emerson Dance Alliance – Gary, Indiana

• The Urban Nutcracker

Theatre at the Center – Munster, Indiana

• The Christmas Schooner
  
  

Central High School – East Chicago, Indiana

• Senior “Academy Awards”

Columbia College Chicago – Chicago, Illinois

• Chester Gregory in Concert
  
  

RECENT FILMS/Director of Photography:

West Side Theatre Guild – Gary, Indiana

• The Firing Squad
  

Falling Drum Productions – Bloomington, Indiana

• Destin’s Heart

Mas Media Seven – Gary, Indiana

• Swan Song
  
• Mug Shots

WHY APOLLO GEL: "I like that it’s durable. We’ve had some cuts of AP1200 frost floating around in our rep plot for almost six years, and they’re still being used. Not having to purchase new cuts for every show means I can put that money towards renting some toys for our large productions!"

HIS FAVES: Radio-controlled helicopters, trains, playing piano, patching his iPod into the theater sound board to "rock out during light hangs,” always giving 110%, combining Mentos and Diet Coke, all things spaghetti, and shooting aerial photography. Says Guy, “There’s nothing like doing loops and hammerheads over Lake Michigan in an open-cockpit biplane."

AS A 5-YEAR-OLD: He went to the circus with his parents and spent more time looking at the follow spot operators than at the tigers and elephants. "I even went as far as asking Santa for ‘spotlights and dry ice’ on a Christmas list at that same age (my mother has this list preserved for posterity)."

TURN-OFFS: "People with a bad work ethic turn us off. It's a pleasure to work with people who do their job in a timely manner and don't complain about it. We always try to live by that example."

RUST ASSURED: Apollo’s Rust Assured (AP7330) was Guy’s go-to gel color for a recent tribute concert, Lyrics: Michael Jackson – Yesterday, Today, and Forever. "Because I work for an African-American theater company, I have to consider lighting people of color in all of our productions. I find that saturated, warm colors look really nice in sidelight on African-American skin tones, which is where I used the AP7330."

BIGGEST THRILL: "I love when you pull the houselights down at the top of a big show with a packed audience and everyone starts screaming – that never gets old!"

BIGGEST FEAR: “I have a recurring dream where I'm standing on a stage with the curtain down, surrounded by lights and cables dumped all over the floor around me, nothing hung, nothing focused. On the other side of the curtain, I can hear the audience chatting quietly, waiting for the show to begin! Scary stuff.”

CLEARING THE AIR: Guy’s jonesing to take flying lessons one day, but in the meantime, he enjoys flying radio-controlled helicopters. "I started with little $30 toy ones, and I've moved up to hobby grade birds that set me back by a couple more zeros. They’re actually very therapeutic and a great way to clear one's head because they require 100% of your concentration."

TABLE TALK: For Guy and his girlfriend of six years, Jahaira, the conversation over the dinner table is more than just sweet nothings. "She’s heard me ramble on and on over spaghetti dinners about DMX signal reflections, balancing power across phases, and viewed countless napkin diagrams of design ideas I'm kicking around." Awww, must be true love.

WHAT’S ON HIS iPOD: Guy describes himself as "an equal opportunity listener" who has music on during just about every part of the design process. "I just discovered the band Muse. I love their blend between rock and classical. The last focus call I did had John Mayer's latest album playing on an almost continuous loop. Owl City is a guilty pleasure as of late. I'm not opposed to Lil Wayne. Other favorites include Red, Smashing Pumpkins, Fefe Dobson, Diane Birch, Vertical Horizon, 30 Seconds To Mars, Jimmy Eat World, I could go on and on..."

FAVORITE TRICK: "Yes, I’m guilty of over-using fanned effects across groups of fixtures to create shutter chases, etc. You may take me to the lighting programmer police now! In all seriousness, that's a trick I use for one-offs where you have zero programming time. It usually looks impressive and takes little time to accomplish on my moving light console of choice, the Wholehog III."

CONCERTS VS. PLAYS: A musician himself, Guy prefers concerts to plays. "There’s something very rewarding about programming lights to music, and then ‘playing’ the lights as the band performs on stage – perfectly matching a big break in the music or flashy ending with some well thought out light cues. My girlfriend can attest to me hitting ‘air cues’ on the steering wheel of my car while listening to a song I like. Whenever I hear a song for the first time, I immediately start thinking of how I'd light it, what colors I'd use, when things would build, move, etc."

IN A SIMPSONS WORLD: If this were Springfield, the animated character most like Guy would have to be Groundskeeper Willy. "He's behind the scenes, making things work smoothly, usually under-appreciated. Plus, like Willy, I have an amazingly ripped muscular figure hiding just under my black polo shirt!" he says humbly.

LATEST KICK: "I recently purchased some battery-operated Litepanel LED fixtures that I use when shooting video projects. It's so nice to be able to throw one of these things in the corner somewhere for a little kicker or accent and not have to run power to it. They've quickly become my go-to fixtures when time or space is limited."

OTHER APOLLO FAVES: "I used Apollo Smart Move DMX gobo rotators for the first time last fall to create a water ripple effect on a production of The Christmas Schooner. They were very straightforward to use and did exactly what I wanted them to do right out of the box. They were also very quiet, which was a consideration in the very intimate space in which they were used."

BEST ADVICE EVER: "A local community theater director, Angie Lowe, approached me during a rehearsal at a show I was lighting during my freshman year of college. She suggested that I slow down my fade times just a bit. Having no idea who this lady was (she wasn't working on the show, she'd just come to the rehearsal), I politely told her that the director wanted them that way and thanks anyway for the suggestion. Just for kicks, though, I tried her idea after she went back to her seat. You know what? Those fades looked a lot better! Now, every time I'm punching in fade times, I always see how the cue looks with an extra second or two tacked on."

DREAM SHOW TO DESIGN: Jesus Christ Superstar would top Guy’s list. "I love programming concerts and using moving lights, and this is a show that certainly has lots of room for that."

HIS MANTRA: Over the years, Guy and a few lighting buddies have developed a mantra that characterizes their diehard work ethic. They call it "getting the rock show." Guy explains, "It means putting forth 110% effort to accomplish your best work for the audience, under any circumstances – without compromise and, most importantly, without complaining." In an industry where things rarely go according to plan, "you can either whine and sulk, or (in true rock and roll fashion), you can ‘get the rock show’ and think on your feet, coming up with a solution that might end up being better than your first idea." Rock on, Guy.

AWARDS: Winner of Northwest Indiana Excellence in Theatre Foundation Award for Best Lighting Design for The Rainmaker, Highland Parks, Highland, Indiana; Nominated for Northwest Indiana Excellence in Theatre Foundation Award for Best Lighting Design for The Last Night of Ballyhoo, 2002, Michigan City, Indiana.

EDUCATION: Bachelor of Arts in Theater/Lighting Design, Columbia College, Chicago, IL, 2005.

WINNER’S REACTION: "I was flattered that my work would be recognized with all the talented designers that have been featured on the Apollo web site prior to me!"